Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.

11 small ideas for Mayor-elect Garcetti to make L.A. less blighty (Curbed LA) 

Many of Curbed’s suggestions are aimed at improving L.A.’s streetscapes for lack of a better term. This is Lincoln & Washington on the Westside. Beautiful! Photo: Google Maps.

I thought this post went 11-for-11 on ideas to clean up and/or better use Los Angeles’ streets. Among the proposals: more street medians, narrower driveways interrupting driveways and street parking, less awful signage and closing parts of Hollywood Boulevard on the weekend.

Dana Gabbard’s rules of transit advocacy (L.A. Streetsblog) 

The rules were first compiled 13 years ago by the long-time transit activist but I think they stand the test of time. Pay heed and bow before No. 7: “Never promise congestion relief resulting from a transit project.” I certainly try not to — the reason to build transit isn’t to solve traffic, it’s to provide an alternative to it and give everyone more mobility options.

Roger Snoble named SunLine interim general manager (Desert Sun) 

The former CEO of Metro has agreed to step in for the summer and oversee the transit agency that provides bus service for the Coachella Valley. Roger retired from Metro in 2009 and lives in the Coachella Valley area. The current g.m. at SunLine is under investigation over the agency’s finances and some recent employee dismissals.

New free bus in downtown Denver? All aboard! (Denver Post)

The editorial backs a proposal to add a second free circulator in downtown Denver despite some criticism that it will be costly and the agency can’t afford it. The Post points out that many people who will use the bus to reach jobs will be transferring from the region’s expanding rail system and would not have had to pay a fare anyway. (Transfers are free on the Denver RTD system although the RTD’s base fares are higher than Metro’s, a typical arrangement on many large metro systems in the U.S.).

On most weekdays, btw, the existing free shuttle in Denver runs every 1.5 to three minutes. I kid you not. See for yourself!

Keystone hires lobbyists with ties to John Kerry (Grist) 

The headline is somewhat misleading as this blog post serves as a good roundup of the hires by both proponents and opponents of the Canada-to-Texas pipeline that would carry oil from Alberta’s tar sands fields to refineries in the U.S. Bottom line: both sides have lobbyists in their holsters. President Obama is expected to make a decision soon; Canada is pressing hard for the pipeline, the reason that Secretary of State Kerry is involved.

Self-driving cars for testing are supported by USDOT (NYT) 

Driver-less cars may not be ready for prime time but the feds see enough safety benefits to encourage firms such as Google to keep working on them. I’m mixed on this one. Lord knows our local streets are festooned with people who have no business ever being behind the wheel, but this doesn’t strike me as a problem as easy to solve as looking up “how do I make the perfect mojito.”